Democracy Matters - Episode 8: So Much Noise and No One Needs A Broadcast Message

by Carah Ong Whaley

SUMMARY: Student attention is a scarce commodity. What are the best opportunities for capturing student attention to engage them in civic learning and democratic engagement? In this episode we talk with Jennifer Domagal-Goldman, Executive Director of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, and Michael Peshkin, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Northwestern University. As a first step to deeper engagement in civic life, Northwestern University registers every incoming student to vote during orientation, and voter registration exceeds 96%. The institutionalization of voter registration began with a Mechanical Engineering professor and students. The ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge encourages higher education institutions to help students form the habits of active and informed citizenship, make democratic participation a core value on their campus, and cultivate generations of engaged citizens who are essential to a healthy democracy. ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement (NSLVE) Northwestern: Student Voter Registration Exceeds 96 Percent (video) How one university teaches its students to vote (and it's old-school) by Kim Castle, Janice Levy and Michael Peshkin The Cost of Convenience: An Experiment Showing E-Mail Outreach Decreases Voter Registration by Elizabeth Bennion (Indiana University) and David Nickerson (Notre Dame)